My new salary!

I spoke to HR about the salary and benefits of my new perm job at the bank, where I've been doing contract writing for the past 9 months.

I'll be making $80,000 with benefits. I'm not eligible for a bonus.

I'm very happy. As a contractor, I had been making the hourly equivalent of $73,000 and my contractor friend repeatedly warned me that the bank makes contractorss take a paycut when and if they go perm. I not only didn't have to take a pay cut, I got a $7,000 bump up.

I haven't earned anything approaching this since 2009, five years ago.

I nudged a little to see if I could go higher, but the HR person said the job originally was set at $78,000 but that my boss really pushed for more, so they increased it by $2,000 but that that was as far as they could go.

I was completely prepared to push hard and had all my arguments lined up and my research on what other banks pay their writers, but I had been expecting them to offer something in the 70s. Honestly, I am quite happy with this salary and it will feel like even more since I have paid off my mortgage. I'll also be saving roughly $2,000 a year on the cheaper but very good Cigna health plan the bank offers, compared to what I'm paying now for an Aetna plan offered by the agency.

Tomorrow I will get an email where I need to electronically accept the job offer and then they will run a background check on me and send me a phone number I'll need to call to schedule a fingerprinting. Sometimes they let you provide the fingerprints electronically, which makes the process go faster. So I will be perm, she said, at the latest by July 21st or so.

The benefits include 22 PTO days that I can use for whatever I want. They'll be pro-rated this year, which I think means I earn them as I go, so if I am perm as of Aug. 1, for instance, then I would be able to get 9 days off for the rest of 2014? Can someone confirm that? Then when I started in 2015, I would get the full 22 days, but am wondering if I have to rack up the time before I can use them.

I have so many plans for the extra money. I need to create a new monthly savings plan, for retirement, of course, but I also want to ramp up some deferred home improvement/maintenance stuff. I'm thinking generator and new kitchen. And maybe restarting my Netflix.

At the same time, I want to rein in what I see as wasteful spending. It is just too easy to go down to the cafe at lobby level for an easy lunch, and I've gotten a little too used to Chinese takeout on Friday nights, so my dining out expenses have approached $100 monthly. Well, that included a $30 lunch when I took my boss out to lunch for her birthday. Money well spent, I'd say! But otherwise, I really need to tone down the eating out; it makes me go off my vegan diet and put on weight.

I'm so happy to have gotten this news during my furlough week off. NOw I can really enjoy it!!!

Congratulations, I'm so glad this has worked out on so many levels. It seems you're ok with the salary and I'll presume there will be increases over time. Will you have probationary status for a short period since they know you, your work and your willingness to work with the team?

Are you sure you want to undertake a big kitchen remodel? If you talk to those of us who lived in our home while the work was underway you might re-consider. Update, upgrade, appliances, paint and floor are just messy but a remodel has potential to uncover issues that lead to problems that require expensive remediation and a year later the tradesmen are still trooping through the door and making hash of savings . If you are still considering selling and buying a condo, I hope you'll talk to an experienced realtor about cost recovery for any plan.

Just want to say thank you for all the well wishes....i have noticed for some time now that I do not necessarily get email notification when someone makes a comment, so just realizing now how many people wrote to say congrats.

Yes, it really has been a long, strange trip. Those 5 years have taught me to truly respect a dollar and to appreciate paid work when I have it.